Meanings
comparative more travailous · superlative most travailous
- archaicliteraryCausing or involving travail; laborious; toilsome.
[…] of my redemption thence, / And portance in travailous history,
c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, edited by Michael Neill, Othello, the Moor of Venice (Oxford World's Classics), Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, published 2008, →ISBN, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 223, lines 138–1392 more examples
A pined and jaded man he was before his middle days, and unlikely to live to full age. Better his mother had been barren, than that her womb should have borne such a sorry travailous life!
1888, Charles M[ontagu] Doughty, chapter III, in Travels in Arabia Deserta, London: Jonathan Cape Ltd. & The Medici Society Limited, page 59Life goes on whether you like it or not. Make the best of it and move on with it no matter how travailous it can be. Don't feel disappointed
2014 January 29, @ShykeLuvAll, Twitter (post)Synonyms: travailsome
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveCausing or involving travail; laborious; toilsome.
Origin
- Old Frenchtravaillos“tiring, painful”
- Anglo-Normantravaillous
- Middle Englishtravailous“laborious, wearisome”
- Englishtravailous
From Middle English travailous (“laborious, wearisome”), from Anglo-Norman travaillous, Old French travaillos (“tiring, painful”). Equivalent to travail + -ous.
More words from Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
travailous. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/travailous
“travailous.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/travailous. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “travailous,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/travailous.
Source: travailous on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.